What Greater Love?
by sweetsouthernbell
Summary: Kate has some doubts about marrying Jack.


**Title:** What Greater Love?  
**Character(s):** Jack/Kate  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summery:** Kate has some doubts about marrying Jack.  
**A/N:** And I go from Jabies, to Jate weddings. I'm a sap. I know.

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It's surprisingly hard to plan a wedding without a minister or someone even licensed to perform marriages around, as she's quickly finding out. Their only priest died weeks ago and since then, the need for someone religious hasn't arisen, until now. Now would really be a great time for one to magically show up because it's hardly a wedding if there's no one to pronounce them man and wife. It's more of a vow ceremony and that's just lame.

The best they've got is Desmond, as he was technically the captain of a boat at one time. That doesn't sound very legal to her but as Jack pointed out it's, the whole thing's not very legal anyway. They have no marriage license and he's pretty sure that it's illegal to marry someone who's wanted by the federal government but he still wants to, for whatever insane reason.

She loves him, she really does and she doesn't doubt that he loves her but it still throws her for a loop whenever she remembers him getting down on bended knee on the beach in front of everyone and proposing to her with a ring he found in one of the suitcases.

She's been married before, to a man she knew she would never be able to stay with, and this is still the weirdest wedding she's ever been a part of. They have no reason to wait, so she decides that they should get married four weeks after his proposal at sunset and yes, everyone's invited.

It's hard to plan a wedding on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific, right smack in the middle of monsoon season no less, too. A wedding dress is something of a luxury and she reluctantly looted through Shannon's old stuff until she found something white.

Flowers are nothing of a problem, she would even have picked them herself if Claire and Sun would've let her. They insisted on handling the flowers, and she agreed with only minimal protests.

Hurley volunteered to cover the food aspect of the entire thing. He's still in charge of what food they have, has been ever since they discovered the hatch, and out of anyone, he knows what they have and what they don't and what they can spare. Kate doesn't mind giving him that responsibility.

Actually, now that it comes down to it all, she really has nothing to do or plan for when it comes to her own wedding. Once the food, flowers, and what she's going to wear are out of the way, there isn't much else to do for a wedding on the island. There are no invitations to be sent or in-laws to deal with or bridesmaids' outfits to pick or anything else that makes a wedding normal.

This wedding's anything but normal. It's on a desert island, in monsoon season so it's likely to rain, the only people coming are the people that are stuck there with them, Dharma Initiative will be catering the wedding with their wonderful boxed dinners, and a fugitive is marrying a world-renown spinal surgeon fifteen months after they met.

It's not without any of the customary teasing either. A week before the wedding, half the camp engaged in a middle of the night scare the hell out of the couple getting married prank. It involved banging on pots from the old hatch and pulling Kate—who was only wearing a camisole and panties—out of the good doctor's tent because it just wasn't proper for an engaged couple to be sleeping together a week before the wedding.

Nevermind that Kate had no where else to sleep if she couldn't stay in Jack's tent. Claire ended up vacating her tent for the week and roughing it with Charlie in his so Kate wouldn't have to sleep outside.

The morning of the wedding dawns warm and without a cloud in the sky. Her last one started with clouds and ended with hail. She takes this odd lack of weather as a blessing of sorts from the island and if the island agrees with it, then it has to be.

The other survivors are doing a damn good job of keeping her and Jack apart on this day. She's been out and about for over three hours now and she hasn't seen any sign of him. Or Sawyer or Sayid or Charlie, she notices after some looking. They probably kidnapped her fiancé before she woke up and she's got the sinking feeling she's not going to see him until it's time to marry him.

Claire and Sun are busy running around with flowers practically coming out of their ears and every offer she's given them to help has been refused. It's also been hinted none too discreetly that she should get out of the way. They'll take care of everything, honestly. All she has to do today is get dressed, look pretty and say 'I do'.

"Here's something we haven't seen in a while. You're sitting still."

Kate smiles and looks up at Rose with a warm expression. "I feel like I've been sitting still for the past month," she comments. "I've hardly done anything for my own wedding."

"Mine and Bernard's was the same," Rose says as she sits next to the bride. "He insisted that we hire a wedding planner."

"So it's normal to feel a little bored?" Kate asks.

"It was for me," Rose answers. "I'm sure it is for you."

Kate half shrugs and ducks her head towards her chest. "I'm a little scared actually," she admits softly.

Rose looks at her in surprise. "Whatever for, honey?"

It's a little funny that Rose is the one she's talking to about this. She'd prefer that it was with Jack. He knew just what to say to banish her fears and make her feel confident again. But beggars can't be choosers and she can't talk to Jack right now. She wouldn't put it past Charlie to hit her with something if she tried.

"What if…" Kate starts, "what if I _can't_ stay here? Right now I'm perfectly fine with staying here, with Jack, with everyone else, and I really, really love him and I can't imagine being without him now."

She stops for a moment, playing with the hole in her jeans on her shin. "I thought I was in love with Kevin too and that I could stay put for him but I couldn't. I got bored with him. I panicked. And then I ran and every day I wish I hadn't. And I don't want to do that to Jack. I don't want to break his heart because I can't sit still."

Rose puts a hand on the younger girl's shoulder and gives her a reassuring smile. "Honey, I don't know Kevin. I'm sure he was a nice guy but I do know Jack," she says. Hell, they all know Jack and they know Jack and Kate aren't going to turn out like Kevin and Kate. "Honey, he's so stubborn that I doubt he'll even let you think about running away from him."

Kate laughs softly and for some reason, tears start welling in the corners of her eyes. "I almost don't want to take that chance."

"Say you do end up trying to run from him," Rose says, completely throwing Kate off guard. "We're on an island, honey. There's only so many places you can go before you have to deal with him. And I think you'll come around even if he doesn't follow you. You're soul mates."

Kate laughs again. "I doubt we're soul mates," she answers. She and Jack fight over everything. It's more common to find them fighting then being in love and for some insane reason, they both come running back for more after every fight's over. She's pretty sure that they're both more in love with the idea of having someone to fight with for the rest of their lives then each other. That works for her.

"That's just my opinion," Rose answers nonchalantly. "You do love him, don't you?"

Kate nods. "Very much."

"And you'd do anything for him?"

"Well… yeah," Kate says, brushing the corners of her eyes with her knuckles. "Yes. I would do anything for him."

Rose smiles and nods approvingly. "Then you'll be fine, honey," she says. "You'll be just fine."

Kate tries to keep Rose's words in mind when she starts to get ready for the ceremony. Of course she and Jack will be fine. They have to be. She can't break his heart like that. She won't let herself.

She sighs, running the one hairbrush on the island through her freshly washed curls. Her hair's staying down for this wedding. Up-dos are just not her thing. Ponytails are good for a quick walk through the jungle, not the most important day of her life. She doesn't have any make up either because that novelty ran out weeks ago. She's wearing a simple white t-shirt and skirt. She's not even going to wear any shoes because hiking boots would look silly and heels and sand would make her fall flat on her face.

She's just going to marry him simply at Kate, nothing more.

"Kate?" Claire calls from outside the tent. "We're ready for you."

"Okay," Kate answers, setting the brush down. "I'll be out in a minute."

It's more like five minutes before she finally emerges from the tent. Claire grins at her and shoves a bouquet into her hands. Kate has no idea what kind of flowers they are, some tropical ones but they're blue and she loves them.

"Thank you," Kate says softly as the two girls approach everyone else.

Claire smiles and offers her a one armed hug. "You're welcome," she answers, stepping off to the side. "Now go get married."

Kate isn't sure how she got to standing next to Jack and in front of the survivors. She vaguely remembers Claire leaving her side and she can hardly recall the walk to her groom or how much time it took to get there. By the look on Jack's face, it wasn't long but he can tell that something's up with her.

"You okay?" he whispers.

Kate lifts one of her shoulders in a shrug. "Alright."

Jack studies her for a moment. He doesn't need her to speak her fears to know what they are. She calls it reading her mind. He calls it just knowing her very well. "Do you want to call it off?" he asks softly.

"Brother?" Desmond says in as low of tone as he can.

Kate looks at Jack and shakes her head. "No, I…" she stops, shyly and then shakes her head again. "I've never been able to stay in one place," she says with confidence and loud enough for everyone to hear. "I've tried over and over and over and every time I end up running because I think I'm going to hurt those that I love if I stay. That happens around me. People get hurt all the time and it's always my fault."

She pauses long enough to brush the corners of her eyes. It's a crying day for her, reasonably so. "But around you, _with you_, it's not like that. You take care of things and it's damn near impossible to really hurt you and I've tried. We all know how hard I've tried," she adds causing him and everyone listening to laugh.

"You make me want to stop running, Jack," Kate says with a teary smile, "and I love you so much for that."

Jack steps closer to her, dropping her hand and bringing his to cup her face as he kisses her.

Desmond waits a couple moments before interrupting. "Brother?" he asks, tapping Jack on the shoulder. "You have to wait until after I pronounce you man and wife to do that."

Jack laughs and Kate smiles shyly, blinking away the tears that have gathered in her eyes. "Sorry," she whispers. She knows that she's thrown off the whole order of the wedding with her little speech.

"It's good, love," Desmond answers. "I don't have to remember how a wedding goes now. Brother, let's hear your vows."

Jack laughs again and for a few minutes he can't be serious enough to repeat his own vows for Kate. He doubts that she meant for her speech to actually be her vows but they work and he doesn't want any other ones from her.

Finally, he calms down and takes her hand. "I have this thing were I need to fix people. I can blame anyone and their problems all I want but it's really my fault. I care too much about others and not enough about myself and a lot of people take advantage of that. People expect me to fix them or look out for them and I do it because I have to, not because I want to."

He pauses and reaches up with his free hand to brush her cheek because she's flooding tears by now. "You don't want or even expect me to fix you and for some reason that makes me want to do it even more. Kate, you're the only person I _want_ to fix and I want to spend the rest of my life doing that."

Kate moves up on her tiptoes, and kisses him despite them being chastised for kissing before being pronounced earlier.

Desmond decides to let it go. There isn't much else he had to do to start off with—there weren't even any rings to exchange—and they just made it all easier on him by skipping a lot of the steps. "Jack, Kate, by the powers invested in me by that sailboat Sayid over there lost to the Others," Sayid has the grace to laugh instead of fighting with Desmond over the sailboat again. "I pronounced you man and wife. You can go on kissing the bride."

Jack pulls Kate closer to him, and they could go on kissing for the rest of the day if the other survivors would let them. They won't, though. It's rare to have an occasion to celebrate on the island and everyone plans on taking full advantage of this wedding when it comes to celebrating.

Charlie and Hurley are the first to pull the newlywed couple apart and they certainly aren't the last for the rest of the night. Everyone seems to want either Jack or Kate but never the two of them at the same time. There's back slapping and jokes to be made with the groom and helpful hints from other husbands about how to survive being one. He doesn't tell them that he's been married before. He just lets them have their fun. And the bride's busy making promises to spill all the details about the wedding night even though they all know she won't say a goddamn word come morning.

Kate's certain that it's after midnight before she even sees Jack again much less talks to him and by then, all she wants is him in the privacy of their tent. When she tells him that, he laughs and drops his head against her shoulder.

"I think Hurley and Charlie are planning on keeping all of us up all night," he comments.

"No offense to Hurley and Charlie," Kate answers, "but I can think of way better ways to spend the night."

Jack laughs again and raises his head to kiss her. "If they go past dawn, I promise we'll disappear into the jungle all day."

Kate grins at him and runs a hand over the fuzz on his head. "I like the way you think."

"I should hope so," Jack responds. "We are married now."

Kate suddenly has the biggest urge to giggle that she's ever had. "I know," she says with a ridiculously large smile.

"Hey Kate," he says after a silence during which they were content just to be around each other.

"Hm?"

"Thank you," he whispers into her hair, "for wanting to stop running."

Kate smiles and she's damn close to tearing up again, "Thank you for wanting to fix me," she answers, putting her arms around him and resting her head on his chest.

It's going to be difficult for them to hold this marriage together. She's going to want to run and he's going to want to fix her and those are things the receiving end doesn't want. But they'll be damned if they let this marriage fall apart. After all, if she can stop running for him and he can fix her, then what greater love is there?

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_Comments are love._


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